Enhancing Faculty Research

Dr. Bill Neumann of the SIUE School of Pharmacy is quite at home in his laboratory located in University Park, studying pain—how it manifests as acute pain and develops over time into chronic pain. Through a nearly $1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, he has worked collaboratively with the Saint Louis University Department of Pharmacology and Physiology to promote better living through chemistry.

“I love my lab in University Park,” said Neumann, who works closely with other faculty members and students from SIUE’s campus. “Being here has allowed me to occupy and effectively use excellent lab space that simply is not available anywhere on campus.

As one of the project’s principal researchers, Neumann, an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry, explains his close proximity to the School of Pharmacy has been beneficial in many ways. “It has enhanced my research. I’m surrounded by a variety of resources that are at my disposal—from students to high-tech equipment. Right now my research team and I are studying the mechanisms of chronic pain as part of a National Institutes of Health grant. If it was not for the Park, I would not have been able to conduct the research I’m currently involved in.”

The NIH grant is specifically administered through the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. Neumann’s research team in University Park consists of individuals specializing in medicinal chemistry, organic chemistry, chemical biology and bioinorganic chemistry research. These researchers work together to design and synthesize new probes that can potentially lead to new drug candidates to address chronic pain management.

“The broad potential therapeutic use of these new analgesic agents we’re proposing is not a part of current pain management drugs,” he said. “Our team will draw upon previous breakthroughs in the development of free radical targeted therapies but we will go further in creating a new approach to combat the problem without some of the current side effects of current pain management drugs.”